In 2006, Warren Buffett posed a challenge. He bet that the smartest hedge fund managers out there couldn’t beat the world’s simplest, most brainless investment. In this show, we tell you who’s winning.

"Crucial life lessons from the end of hockey games, Idris Elba, and some Wall Street guys with a lot of time on their hands."

Revisionist History wades into the crowded self-help marketplace, with some help with from a band of math whizzes and Hollywood screenwriters. It’s late in a hockey game, and you’re losing. When should you pull your goalie? And what if you used that same logic when a bad guy breaks into your house and holds your entire family hostage? We think the unthinkable, so you don’t have to.

Financial Times columnist and author Tim Harford talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about Harford’s latest book, Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy. Highlights include how elevators are an important form of mass transit, why washing machines didn’t save quite as much time as you’d think, and the glorious illuminating aspects of light throughout history.

How did bad come to mean good? Why is Shakespeare so hard to understand? Is there anything good about "like" and "you know?" Author and professor John McWhorter of Columbia University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the unplanned ways that English speakers create English, an example of emergent order. Topics discussed include how words get short (but not too short), the demand for vividness in language, and why Shakespeare is so hard to understand.

You might think your tweets on Twitter belong to you. But in 2010, the Library of Congress acquired the entire archive of Twitter. Why would such a majestic library acquire such seemingly ephemeral material? Historian Abby Smith Rumsey, author of When We Are No More, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about this decision of the Library of Congress and the general challenge of how to cope with a world when so much of what we write and read is digital. Subjects discussed include what we can learn from the past, the power of collective memory, what is worth saving, and how we might archive our electronic lives so that we and those who come after us can find what we might be looking for.

Rachel Laudan, visiting scholar at the University of Texas and author of Cuisine and Empire, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the history of food. Topics covered include the importance of grain, the spread of various styles of cooking, why French cooking has elite status, and the reach of McDonald’s. The conversation concludes with a discussion of the appeal of local food and other recent food passions.

As families travel and gather together for Thanksgiving here in the United States, today, a conversation with two people whose interactions with genetic data bases led to revelations about their family that no one in the family had known before.

The story of Lisa Welchman and Daryle Lowden is poignant and heart-warming. Daryle is in his forties. Lisa in in her fifties, and just last spring, they discovered that they are half-brother and sister.

Today on Midday, we’ll hear their story and talk about how they came to know each other after decades of not having even the slightest inkling that the other existed. We’ll talk about what it has meant for them, and for the rest of their family.

And we’ll also talk about the intended and unintended consequences of the fast-growing consumer genetic testing industry. When we submit our DNA to companies like Ancestery.Com or 23 and Me, do we retain control of how and by whom that information can be used? What is required of these companies when it comes to protecting the privacy of the millions of people who voluntarily share this private information?

But first, the incredible story of Daryle Lowden and Lisa Welchman. Daryle Lowden had a 20 year career as a professional musician. He’s now working as a HR consultant. He lives in Kingston Upon Thames, England, just outside of London. He joins us from the studios of the BBC in London…

Lisa Welchman lives here in Baltimore. She is a tech entrepreneur, who is considered the world’s leading authority on digital governance. She joins us here in Studio A.

Fifty years ago, just before the holidays in 1968, The Beatles put out not just a new album, but a double album, something relatively unheard of at the time. The album art was a stark, white, glossy cover with raised, slanted lettering that simply said, "The Beatles." That self-titled album, with its 30 songs that span genres from American country music to avant-garde tape collage, has come to be known as "The White Album." And in celebration of its birth 50 years ago, The Beatles label Apple Records has scoured the archives for a new deluxe edition of the album that, for the first time, includes previously unreleased, early demo recordings, studio outtakes and stunning remixes in both stereo and 5.1 surround.

Today we’ve got a conversation with the man who produced this 100-plus song celebration, Giles Martin, whose father, George Martin, produced "The White Album" back in ‘68 (along with most everything else The Beatles ever made). In this interview with Giles Martin, you’ll hear some of the early demos, outtakes and remixes. But he begins by describing the process of making of the "The White Album," how it turned out to be a much-less planned and much more organic process than ever, and how that frustrated George Martin.